When video works: audio, lighting and eyes
Everything about this story is compelling. Murali Krishna is perhaps the nicest guy I’ve met. Very gracious and accommodating. And given his resume of success and life accomplishments, I’m honored that he fit me into his schedule for the above video interview.
My boss, Kelly Dyer Fry, conducted the interview. She is a gifted storyteller. You can read her story here. It’s the second project we collaborated on this year, read the other here.
I lit up Dr. Krishna’s office with four cameras: two stationary Vados, a Canon 7D as the main camera and a roving Sony HVR A1U.
The Sony produced bizarre colors in post production. I couldn’t decide whether to tone down the saturation or completely reduce the saturation (black and white). Still not sure which would have looked better. That’s what you get mixing a wide range of cameras.
Audio was also hit and miss. The wireless kit had a short. But I had previously had Todd Fraser record one of Dr. Krishna’s mental health seminars just to get another version of his story. And it paid off. I had originally intended to edit back and forth between the story in the office and the seminar, but the audio issues made it almost imperative to do so.
This is one of those productions that makes the job more of a career and something you cherish doing. It’s just that I wound up editing at 1 am because there’s not much time to fit an extra large project in with the daily obligations. But you find time, no matter what the clock says.
I liked the natural light in Dr. Krishna’s office to create a back light and overall ambient. I killed his overhead fluorescents and added an umbrella light as a key. I also added a small Lite Panel just below Dr. Krishna on the table in front of him. The goal with some uplighting but also to add some light to his eyes. The effect of light in a subject’s eyes can be effective. Of course he wore glasses, so it comes across more as glare.
But the final frame of his interview is perhaps the most effective of the entire video, when you can see the pain in his eyes as he looks into the camera. I can’t imagine going through what he did, losing a parent or seeing a parent suffer would be about the most painful thing ever.
SandRidge Christmas Tree comes to life, or light
Coit’s for sale and why they no longer sell Christmas Trees
Nice work by Steve Lackmeyer on this story and interview. Good shooting by Grayson Cook.
BlockPartyOKC 2011
Quick edit from last night’s BlockPartyOKC held at the Packard Building in downtown Oklahoma City.
Great event, great people, great cause – benefitting OKC Educare. Big thanks to The Exchange organizers for their tremendous help.
Shot this with the Canon 7D and struggled with the constantly changing lights. The back of the runway was much brighter than the front, which is where the media area was staged. I moved around some to get different vantage points and to get a better angle. I had planned to shoot with a 14mm lens but only used it during Jonathan Fowler’s interview and the exterior shots. For inside, I stuck with the 24-105mm lens to zoom on the models and create more shots. Was actually surprised how much of this turned out to be in focus, without the Zacuto rig and with the frenetic pacing, it was hard to nail down a solid focus, especially on marching models.
Also had a Vado camera on a small tripod, stage left, which I only used in the edit a few times. It produced some surprisingly good shots.
Jabee vs Hanson
Our “Got It Covered” series features local musicians covering songs made famous by Oklahomans.
Thursday, Kyle Roberts and I produced a segment with local hip hop artist Jabee covering Hanson’s 1997 hit “MmmBop.”
The venue is Saints Pub in the Plaza District. We recorded audio with our Zoom recorder and we recorded it two ways: XLR out into channel 1 and the on board “stereo” mic that captures the room sound. Video is shot with a Canon 7D using a 24-105mm lens.
Jabee didn’t sing Hanson, rather he gave a brilliant performance by rapping to a sampling of “MmmBop.” Inspired stuff.
My favorite part of the above video is yours truly saying “MmmBop” was No. 1 in the US for three years instead of three weeks. Heavy sigh…
Static: Denver Duncan on a Water Taxi
Kyle Roberts had the idea of taking Static on tour by visiting Oklahoma landmarks or places easily recognizable.
My friend Chad Huntington at the Bricktown Water Taxis has always been great to work with, so I thought we could put an acoustic artist on a boat for a Static session. It turned out better than anticipated. The audio is outstanding, given the 20mph winds on Tuesday. Also, the sunlight through the trees captured by the Canon 7D with 14mm lens provides some dramatic images.
Equally impressive is Denver Duncan’s vocal range. His falsetto is right on key.
